


growing pains

by enlaurement24



Category: Twosetviolin
Genre: Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, Gay Awakening, M/M, Masturbation, Pining, Self-Doubt, Slow Burn, Straight Until They Aren't, a few bad words, adequately soft, at the tender age of 27, i love you mrs.chen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2020-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:07:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23127526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enlaurement24/pseuds/enlaurement24
Summary: They're the same height still, his palm wider and the tips of his fingers reach over Eddy's just so. Brett doesn't remember a time when he looked down to Eddy's face. (Brett through the years, Eddy at his side)
Relationships: Eddy Chen/Brett Yang
Comments: 32
Kudos: 173





	growing pains

The first time they touch is out of anxiety. Brett is 14 and his nervousness gets the better of him, he bumps the back of his hand against Eddy's once, twice, enough times that Eddy gets the idea to compare hand sizes, only to give them something to do in the room full of much older musicians. 

They're the same height still, his palm wider and the tips of his fingers reach over Eddy's just so.

Eddy's hand is cold and sweaty, shaky bow written all over his face. Brett doesn't know him yet but this isn't what he saw yesterday in maths tutoring. He's one year older and he wants them to sound good enough to fit in. He wants them to play together until he can outdo his lame jokes from yesterday which only earned him some confused laughter on Eddy's part. He's recently realized that he can be popular and he has friends at school. He knows he plays well on the violin. But he wants to play so well and be so cool that Eddy can just choose to follow him.

He kind of wants to be Eddy's senpai.

Brett grabs at Eddy's sleeve, turns on the smile he uses to get out of trouble and plops them down next to a group of cello players,all girls, that is easily enough won over. In a week, he wins over all of the girls in the orchestra. In a month, they work so hard and learn so much that they win everybody over. Eddy's mom and Brett's dad exchange phone numbers and addresses so that they can take turns on picking them up. In a year, they play first violin.

Brett is 15 and he's starting to feel left behind. Objectively, he knows he has improved, he practices until his fingers hurt, he extends his repertoire, he plays harder pieces, he competes, he wins. 

He wins against Eddy too, until suddenly he doesn't.

They're at Brett's house practicing together and he notices how Eddy can spot bad intonation immediately and how little time he takes to correct it compared to Brett. The more he watches his friend, the more frustrated he gets and it must show on his face because on the sixth run through the same bar he doesn't seem to get right, Eddy points out the problem. Brett scrunches his face up, feels like he's about to start either shouting or crying when Eddy reaches for his wrist with a 'I've been learning bowing technique off of you for months bro'. He looks vaguely embarrassed and a lot worried, the tips of his ears red and he's giving his best at a Mrs.Chen's stern face. 'I thought this is why we practice together' and Brett could slap himself for not seeing it sooner. Not against, but complementary. 

'It's my treat on bubble tea for the entire week, dude, whatever you want' Brett says and Eddy relaxes, tries at a joke about bribing him so he would go easier on the next competition. Brett laughs, shoulder checks his weirdly insightful friend and decides to match Eddy's talent and flavour and aural skills and spontaneity with technique and musicality. 

He doesn't need talent to become a soloist. 

Brett is 18 and he wishes Mrs.Chen would knock it off with the medical school talk. His own parents are trying to push for architecture but he knows that he can still make his own choice. Eddy's anxiety on the other hand is bleeding into everything and he's not even in his last year of highschool yet. Brett is barely able to contain it and Eddy keeps digging into Shostakovich, keeps messing up his school evaluations, keeps using him as shield and example ('Brett's going to conservatory, you always liked him and he's not going to be a doctor so why can't you just let me do what I want?). 

Between worrying about Eddy, worrying about his entrance examination and worrying about disappointing his own parents, Brett manages to offend three girlfriends in two months. He's wanking in his room and he wonders why he even went out with them in the first place, wonders why he's doing this, figures it's somewhat out of frustration and habit. He tries not to think but remembers Eddy playing Debussy's Sonata for him last time he was here, remembers looking at his fingering pattern and finally accepting that Eddy's hands are bigger than his and much better suited for violin playing. He comes with his eyes squeezed shut against complicated humidity. 

Brett thinks of Eddy giving up violin and almost wants to do the same. 

Brett is turning 20 and he is practicing alone in a very stinky practice room. It's his second year of uni, he's suffered through unsuccessful socialising, an array of semi useless courses, playing viola for a whole week and counting down days and hours to seeing Eddy (to laughing, to inside jokes, to bubble tea and Super Smash Bros, to keeping Eddy anchored against his anxiety and Mrs. Chen, to meaningful practice). He discovered that he likes partying and that while getting girls feels like winning, sex can be unbearable and he can't practice it on his own goddamn it. 

It's only fair that Eddy gets to have a taste of all that but he's been taking spoonfuls of his first year at uni and Brett feels like an uncool uncle best avoided. 

He packs his violin, leaves, stops on his way home for bubble tea. Thinks about calling Eddy out on his shitty gift of ugly socks through messages and decides not to, opens his front door. The light flickers on right before he steps on a cup of bubble tea. There's tens of them all over his hallway with few random uncomfortable places here and there, big enough for his foot. His red inside socks are just by the door. 

'I even left you space to take off your shoes man, come on' he hears from his kitchen followed by Happy Birthday played on violin. 

He ends up tripping one step away from the finnish but Eddy slides into the hallway (real smooth), grabs him by the middle and spins him in the kitchen entry while Brett makes his best impression of a harassed koala. Eddy's newfound consistency in going to the gym might just be the worst part of this entire year. 

'You should've just stayed small' Brett tells him and doesn't remember a time when he looked down to Eddy's face. 

Brett is 21 and they begin TwoSetViolin. 

Brett is 22 and they start getting shit for TwoSetViolin, even though people thought it funny at first. Eddy is 21 and luckily for him, he manages, approximately, to have sex before they become too infamous. He keeps bursting into laughter at weird times the day after but he cracks easily enough when Brett asks. 

'I was thinking about the Debussy joke the entire time but couldn't say anything because I was sure she'd take it badly'. Brett doubles over and his belly hurts when they're done.

They think up ways to work the joke in their cover videos but give up on it. Brett doesn't care that their professors might see it but Eddy does, so he heeds. 

There are chat groups where people talk about them but it's hard to give those any attention when people he thought close snicker behind Brett's back while he sits in lectures. He isn't really all that hurt because he's going to the G20 summit and they aren't. Because he is that good and because he only ever leans on Eddy, no one else. 

Brett is more excited about taking a photo with the King of Saudi Arabia than he is about meeting Obama, but Eddy seems fairly starstruck about the whole thing. He asks for both photos and he keeps them next to his violin trophies like a grandmother. He asks to see if Brett's hand had magically changed and keeps touching the pads of his fingers when they're sat by each other. 

They talk about going abroad to further study and neither of them feels like it's what they need. The more TwoSet grows, the more vulnerable and defensive Brett feels about it, but he's never gone for the safe choice so he pours more of himself into their deformed screeching baby. His video editing skills improve. 

Brett tells Eddy that he's auditioning for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and he doesn't offer to follow.

Brett is 24 and he chooses to be uprooted to being stuck. He loves playing in an orchestra and loves Sydney but every time Eddy visits for their filming, homesickness hits him in the teeth until he bleeds his need for Eddy's dumb company all over the place. He finds himself counting the hours they have for filming and it's worse than counting the days without Eddy.

Eddy who brings his girlfriends on a few occasions. Brett likes them for the most part but can only think of how Eddy's front teeth work into kissing and he would just rather not.

He's grown enough to know his worth but giving up on his childhood dream tears through him with blunt scissors. It's a special sort of defeat that weighs him down and comes out ugly. It leaves his playing different, sharper, the way it used to be when he was just starting and he hated the violin.

He figures it out through practicing, as always. He's with Eddy and they're working through Sarasate's Navarra. He's played long enough without Eddy to be impressed by his fingering so Brett is watching closely, out of his uncomfortable mind for once. He sees when the memory slip hits but Eddy decides to fuck about and randomly play Wieniawski so Brett follows him because he can and because he thought of a transition back into Sarasate that's going to make Eddy wail. Turns out they can do a lot more than expected, they go back and forth for a while until it all sounds more like tuning than anything else and Brett starts sensually petting Eddy's socked foot with his own.

Eddy is rightfully disgusted and throws him a high pitched 'oh Mr.Yang I didn't know you had such fetishes' while running away.

They both give up their spots in the Sydney and Queensland Symphony Orchestras.

They're playing Navarra in the Sydney Opera House. Brett lost scissors paper rock (but won the one for adding the Debussy joke) so he is first violin and he can't see the audience but can feel the waves of excited energy, hears Eddy's shaky breathing but no shaky bow, steadies himself for Eddy's support. 

They sound sweet, the way they should, and Brett thinks that this must be what soloists feel like.

Brett is 25 and he's watching Eddy sleep on the street. He's suddenly struck with the thought that they're both touched in the head and that nothing is worth putting Eddy in this situation. His 14 year old self is a shit senpai. 

He keeps playing Sibelius, goes over their plans for their tour in his head, thinks of meeting Hilary Hahn. He can tell that Eddy's deeply asleep by the angle at which Eddy's mouth is open. Sometimes his foot tries kicking out from the sleeping bag. Brett doesn't understand how he can be this unconscious right now but he remembers being left to freeze because of all the kicking.

He makes a mental note for the tour to get hotel rooms with two beds if possible so that Eddy can be annoying a little ways over. Brett figures it won't work out like that sometimes but he knows that if he touches Eddy's belly (former abs), he always folds himself towards Brett enough to bring back the cover with him.

Brett lets Eddy sleep through the night, whines about it in the morning and lets himself be appeased with hot disgusting bubble tea. Decides to let Eddy know that he loves him when this is over. 

Brett is 27 and he's reading fanfiction with Eddy. About Brett and Eddy, on camera. Everything about it is excruciating and the way his brain is trying to make sense of it hurts him with unknown depth. 

He cringes so hard from the BAE part he's surprised he hasn't turned to stone, but he will admit there was a time when missing Eddy wasn't comfortable. He reads 'Admit it, I'm your senpai!' out loud, feels vaguely called out, has flashbacks of shouting 'daddy' at full volume in a taiwanese café. Eddy's halfway between laughing and cringing at his side and Brett is starting to get into it because it's just funny and maybe not as offensive as he expected.

The rough housing turned sexual hits him from the side and by the way Eddy full body backs away from the laptop, Brett can already tell that there's going to be leftover awkwardness from this next time they get pinchy over Super Smash Bros. It was Eddy's idea to begin with so Brett just goes to his happy place and lets Eddy process everything in peace (and publicly). 

From his place by the window Brett can see the back of his neck getting more flushed by the second and tries to seriously consider being attracted to that. He knows he loves Eddy, has loved him for around 13 years already. If he had to choose, it would be the width of his shoulders, the spot where his violin hickey always forms that Brett would sexually fall for. He does hear what Eddy is reading and can remember times when he was aware of his breathing by the movement of their chests. He just didn't think of it like that.

It's over, after a while, and Eddy comes at him with a crooked grin and a shameless 'I guess we have to confess our love and lust now bro'. Brett can only stare at his front teeth, starts petting Eddy's foot into submission.

Only Eddy doesn't squeal and run, Brett gets up and Eddy moves with him, grabs him by the shoulders light enough to be confusing and walks him backwards until they hit the wall.

It's a stare down from there and Brett holds onto Eddy's left elbow, somewhat surprised at being walked into a wall for the first time in his life. With that much intent, by his best friend.

He hears himself try saying something along the lines of 'this is so gay bro' but then Eddy is right in his face and they work through the physics of kissing by reflex. Eddy is somewhat at the corner of his mouth and Brett hasn't really closed his eyes so he notices the blonde roots of his eyelashes, doesn't know what to do with his left hand, keeps it flat on their wall. It's soft enough that there isn't any need for teeth knocking and as soon as Eddy pulls back Brett is disoriented, still doesn't know how his front teeth fit into heated kisses.

Eddy is laughing, trying to make it into a joke, flushed to his fingertips. Brett knows his hands must be sweaty and cold, says 'If this is how you charm your girls then I don't know how you had so many girlfriends, man.' 

'Are you charmed?'

'I think I might have already been, but this is going to need more than 40 hours of practice a day.' 

Eddy comes back and they slide down and sit on the floor side by side. Brett is pulling his shirt over his head as he addmits to thinking that it's just baby love even though he kind of wanked to thoughts of Eddy's hands at 18. He promises that he will 'definitely get that vibe back' and relearn to be sexually attracted to his best friend and Eddy can only laugh, holds Brett's hand and pushes his fingers against the soft covering Brett's ribs, leans on Brett until he calls him heavy and fat.

Eddy is 26 and he can hear Edwina in the back of his head screaming. 

Eddy is 26 and has been loving Brett for half of that.

**Author's Note:**

> Anyway, this was Wonderwall. I used references from many different videos so ask if you need any of them. Watching Two Violins One BAE (Reading Your Fanfictions!) is going to turn the last bit way funnier than it actually is. Thankfully, nothing ended up being accurate.


End file.
